Explainable AI: Advances in Interpretability Algorithms and Applications

A special issue of Algorithms (ISSN 1999-4893). This special issue belongs to the section "Evolutionary Algorithms and Machine Learning".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 878

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Facultad de Informática, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28001 Madrid, Spain
Interests: machine learning; artificial intelligence; e-learning; programming languages
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The growing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in critical domains such as healthcare, finance, law, and autonomous systems has intensified the need for models that are not only accurate, but also interpretable and transparent. In response, explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) has emerged as a field dedicated to opening the “black box” of complex AI systems, enabling human users to understand, trust, and effectively govern intelligent algorithms.

This Special Issue will focus on recent advances in explainability algorithms—both model-specific and model-agnostic—that aim to improve the transparency, accountability, and robustness of AI systems across diverse applications. As AI continues to be deployed in high-stakes environments, the development of reliable interpretability tools becomes essential for ensuring ethical use, regulatory compliance, and human-centric design.

We invite high-quality submissions that address the theoretical foundations, algorithmic innovations, and real-world implementations of explainable AI. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary research that bridges technical development with societal, legal, or ethical considerations.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Novel algorithms for local and global interpretability;
  • Comparative studies of XAI methods (e.g., SHAP, LIME, Integrated Gradients, Anchors);
  • Benchmarks, metrics, and evaluation frameworks for XAI;
  • Explainability in ensemble learning, deep learning, and generative models;
  • Interpretable AI in healthcare, finance, law, and scientific discovery;
  • Human-in-the-loop and interactive explanations;
  • Visualization techniques for explainable AI;
  • The role of explainability in AI ethics, fairness, and accountability;
  • Regulatory perspectives and standards for transparent AI;
  • Robustness and reliability of explanation methods under adversarial conditions;
  • Causal inference and counterfactual reasoning in XAI;
  • Usability and cognitive dimensions of model explanations;
  • Explainability in edge computing, IoT, and real-time systems.

We welcome original research articles, surveys, case studies, and critical reviews that contribute to advancing the field of interpretable and explainable artificial intelligence.

Dr. Antonio Sarasa-Cabezuelo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • explainable AI (XAI)
  • interpretability algorithms
  • SHAP, LIME, Anchors
  • transparent machine learning
  • trustworthy AI
  • human-centered AI
  • algorithmic accountability
  • model-agnostic explainability
  • fairness and bias in AI
  • XAI for high-stakes applications
  • AI ethics and governance
  • interpretable deep learning
  • AI transparency frameworks
  • responsible AI design

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 1224 KB  
Article
Explainable AI for Coronary Artery Disease Stratification Using Routine Clinical Data
by Nurdaulet Tasmurzayev, Baglan Imanbek, Assiya Boltaboyeva, Gulmira Dikhanbayeva, Sarsenbek Zhussupbekov, Qarlygash Saparbayeva and Gulshat Amirkhanova
Algorithms 2025, 18(11), 693; https://doi.org/10.3390/a18110693 - 3 Nov 2025
Viewed by 617
Abstract
Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis reduces adverse outcomes and alleviates the burden on healthcare, yet conventional approaches are often invasive, costly, and not always available. In this context, machine learning offers promising solutions. [...] Read more.
Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis reduces adverse outcomes and alleviates the burden on healthcare, yet conventional approaches are often invasive, costly, and not always available. In this context, machine learning offers promising solutions. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of reliably predicting both the presence and the severity of CAD. The analysis is based on a harmonized, multi-center UCI dataset that includes cohorts from Cleveland, Hungary, Switzerland, and Long Beach. The work aims to assess the accuracy and practical utility of models built exclusively on routine tabular clinical and demographic data, without relying on imaging. These models are designed to improve risk stratification and guide patient routing. Methods and Results: The study is based on a uniform and standardized data processing pipeline. This pipeline includes handling missing values, feature encoding, scaling, an 80/20 train–test split and applying the SMOTE method exclusively to the training set to prevent information leakage. Within this pipeline, a standardized comparison of a wide range of models (including gradient boosting, tree-based ensembles, support vector methods, etc.) was conducted with hyperparameter tuning via GridSearchCV. The best results were demonstrated by the CatBoost model: accuracy—0.8278, recall—0.8407, and F1-score—0.8436. Conclusions: A key distinction of this work is the comprehensive evaluation of the models’ practical suitability. Beyond standard metrics, the analysis of calibration curves confirmed the reliability of the probabilistic predictions. Patient-level interpretability using SHAP showed that the model relies on clinically significant predictors, including ST-segment depression. Calibrated and explainable models based on readily available data are positioned as a practical tool for scalable risk stratification and decision support, especially in resource-constrained settings. Full article
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